In today’s complex and dotted-line organizational culture, your job frequently requires buy-in from people outside your direct authority. Influencing people who report to someone else can prove daunting—and an even greater challenge if you confuse the principles of leadership and authority. (They’re not the same.)

Contrary to what you may have learned in leadership training, you can effectively guide people who are outside your realm of authority. To do so, you must understand what leadership truly is and how it appears to those who are looking for it.

The traditional model of leadership requires control (authority) to “make” people do what they need to do. Fortunately, this has become an outdated philosophy that, we have come to realize, ignores basic human behavior.

In contrast, leadership establishes goals or visions and inspires people to achieve them—a process accomplished through influence. Those influenced positively will follow willingly (the essence of true leadership).

While almost everyone has the ability to influence others and lead in some capacity, many leaders fail to be inspirational and fall back into their default position: an insistence on asserting their authority.

Your ability to influence people will determine whether you can lead those who report to others. Work on mastering the following principles to increase your sphere of influence.

1. Be a Worthy Leader

Show others how reliable, trustworthy and respectable you can be.

Demonstrate confidence if you want others to work with self-reliance, advises Patricia Simpson in Leading Without Authority, a July 2016 Leadership Institute article.

Know your abilities, limitations, values, mission and perspective allows you to perform an accurate self-assessment. Work to improve your skills; you’ll be rewarded with greater trust.

Leaders who care about others are worth following. Being helpful, especially when there’s no direct benefit to yourself, commands respect and influence.

Take ownership of the quest for positive change, while also giving credit to others. Listening to others’ ideas and valuing their input forges a collective ownership.

2. Promote Relationships

People-focused leaders enjoy the greatest professional success, as influence is founded on relationships. People find it easier to follow the ideas of someone they like, respect and trust, suggests Erica Hersh in Leading Outside Your Authority, a 2015 article for the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Show interest in people, and regularly communicate how much they’re valued to cultivate healthy, mutually beneficial relationships. This strengthens your influence and builds a stronger following.

3. Build Credibility

People seek leaders with the insight to pinpoint needed improvements and the skills to implement the necessary changes. Nothing beats a track record of making things happen.

Part of being credible is the ability to think critically, yet openly. Your capacity to see things objectively—and realistically—engenders trust. Leaders who openly tackle and overcome obstacles with regularity and positivity are deemed credible. Be a critical thinker, not a critical person.

Become known for never giving up, while putting the organization’s needs ahead of your own. Demonstrate that you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, and eschew the “it’s not my job” mentality; you’ll earn respect and enhance your credibility.

A powerful role model sees a need that no one else is addressing and works toward remedying it.

4. Challenge the Status Quo

Perhaps the toughest test you’ll face when working outside your authority is challenging the system. By questioning the status quo, you insinuate that change is needed. Some may take your comments personally, unable to separate the policy from the personal.

Followers may also resist your efforts, fearing the potential fallout.

Navigating these treacherous waters requires a multifaceted approach:

Ensure that your motives and values are honorable and evident. Changes perceived to be self-serving or inappropriately critical will be rejected quickly.

Present compelling solutions instead of merely identifying a problem, Simpson advises. Develop a reputation for being a problem-solver for your boss, with everyone’s best interests in mind. Paint a picture of positivity and mutual benefit.

When you’re in tune with your boss’s needs, you’re in the best position to lead change.

Choose your battles, and be willing to let some things go. Learn to accept the possibility that some of your ideas will be rejected. Recognize that you’ll take some wrong turns on the way to finding the right ones. The entire process is yet another opportunity to grow professionally as you expand your sphere of influence.

5. Enlist Colleagues’ Support

You’ll build an even stronger position when you harness the influence of peer-level leaders.

Reach out to these colleagues in a positive, sincere and nonthreatening way. By working together, you have a greater chance of convincing higher-level managers to move forward.

Present solutions as vehicles for achieving joint benefits. This approach can be a compelling start to improving the status quo.

6. Show Initiative

Anticipate leadership opportunities—and be ready when the call to action arrives.

Better yet, recognize that “each of us has a unique opportunity to create something right where we are,” as Scroggins says. “It doesn’t require special authority or a fancy title or having the corner office…Don’t shrink back until someone calls your number.”

Be self-starters. Seize every opportunity to lead by example.

Feel free to pass this newsletter on to friends and acquaintances should you think they might benefit from it.